I posted a recipe for sour baingan masala on Thursday and noted that it was in fact two recipes for the price of one. Here is the second recipe. It is a very simple adaptation of the first—in fact, it’s not even an adaptation. It’s the same recipe plus one ingredient: coconut milk. It was instigated by the missus finding the original recipe too sour for her taste and as I’d made it with two pounds of long eggplant I was left with the prospect of eating it by myself for the rest of my life. I like that recipe a lot but variety is nice. And so I separated half the finished sour baingan masala and added a cup of coconut milk to it. A little bit of simmering and it yielded a lovely, velvety stew with the sourness still there but now balanced by the sweetness of the coconut milk. Really, this is a recipe worth making for its own sake, not just as a way of salvaging a very sour dish that deranged members of your household may be refusing to eat. And where the original is a more rustic preparation, this one’s got style. Give it a go.

Ingredients

• Half the recipe for sour baingan masala
• 1 cup (250 ml) coconut milk
• Additional salt to taste

Preparation

1. At the point where the previous recipe ends add the coconut milk, mix in gently, raise to a simmer and then simmer covered for 5-7 minutes.
2. Stir again gently to combine, check/adjust salt and serve with steamed rice.

Notes

1. As I say, this is very worth making on its own terms.
2. If you want to add some heat you can drop 2-3 slit green chillies in with the coconut milk.
3. Coconut milk seems to have become my go-to comfort ingredient during the pandemic. I should probably try to resist this development if I want to live through it.